Ed. Note: Thanks to Kaili Killpack for this week’s Guest Post.
Start 2018 with some SEO Best Practises!
With news of how Google is changing and evolving its search engine tactics, it’s looking like 2018 is going to be a big year for new SEO trends. Lucky for you, we’ve put together this list of New Year’s resolutions for all you SEOs out there.
Update Your Meta Descriptions
In November, Google started allowing longer snippets in the descriptions under organic listings on their search pages. Instead of the limiting 155 characters, some snippets now show up to 375 characters. If you haven’t done so already, get in and add some length (some relevant length) to the meta descriptions of your web pages to get more of your content out in front of potential customers. A good recommendation is 300 characters.
Optimize for Page Speed
Ultimately, it is Google’s goal to create the ideal user experience. This means quick loading web pages. Check your website’s page speeds and make the necessary changes to get it running at an ideal speed. Most searchers won’t wait longer than three seconds for a web page to load. One way to help your website run quicker is to optimize your website’s images. If you’re running a site that depends on a high volume of high quality images, then read this primer on how to do SEO for websites with lots of images.
Write Relevant Content
Now, hopefully you were already doing this, but relevance is becoming increasingly more important in the SERPs. It all comes back to user experience. Google wants to ensure that its users are getting the information they need as quickly as they can.
One way you can make sure that your content is relevant is to search the phrases you want to rank for and see what is already ranking in the top results. What features do those web pages have? What kind of content are they using? Then use those as examples for moving forward – creating your own unique content that will be even better. That’s the goal, anyway.
Optimize for Mobile Devices
More than 50 percent of search queries are performed on mobile devices. Google plans to cater to that majority with a “mobile-first index.” Basically, if you have a mobile version of your website, Google is going to crawl that site before your desktop site and display that for mobile users in the search results. So now is the optimal time to make sure your mobile sites are looking good, running quickly, and loaded with relevant content.
If you’re looking to design a new website, try an affordable web design that is already optimized for use on mobile devices.
Increase Online Mentions
Google is smart, and it’s only getting smarter. More and more, Google is going to be tracking mentions of your brand name to enhance your website’s authority. And the best part is, they don’t even have to be linked to your site! As Google continues to evolve, it will be able to track even unlinked mentions of your website to help increase your site authority. Now’s the time to get your name out there.
Google is constantly evolving. Do your due diligence as an SEO to stay on top of the trends and keep the traffic rolling in. Here’s a useful roundup of some of the top SEO trends for 2018, by Jim Milan.
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About the Authour: Kaili Killpack is the SEO & Content Management Lead at Manwaring Web Solutions. She writes website content and helps businesses improve their local and national SEO.
Want to start off 2018 with the right foot regarding your website’s success? Start with a Free SEO Report to see what you’re doing right, and where you need to improve ASAP!
